Who’s moving where and for what jobs? Glassdoor study reveals top U.S. cities applicants are eyeing

Seattle is a leading destination when it comes to U.S. cities where people are most interested in moving for work, but it still trails several others, including San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and more.

That finding is among many in a new economic research study out today from Glassdoor, the job and recruiting website. The study, Metro Movers: Where Are Americans Moving for Jobs, And Is It Worth It?, identifies, among other things, where job applicants are most interested in moving, where they’re interested in leaving, and which factors drive people to move for a new job.

The study is based on a sample of more than 668,000 online job applications started on Glassdoor during a one week period, from Jan. 8-14, for the 40 largest metro areas in the U.S.

“Metro movers” — defined by Glassdoor as job seekers located in one metro who start a job application in another metro — still find San Francisco to be the most attractive place to try to land work, despite a high cost of living and housing shortage.The city alone attracted 12.4 percent of all applications by job seekers looking to move cities. Seattle attracted 3.1 percent.

(Glassdoor Graphic)

It shouldn’t come as any surprise which company is attracting the most people, by far, to apply for work in Seattle.

(Glassdoor Graphic)

Companies in Providence, R.I., would appear to be having a hard time keeping people from leaving based on the fact that that city had the highest percentage of candidates applying for jobs elsewhere at 52.2 percent. The California cities of San Jose (47.6 percent), Riverside (47.3 percent) and Sacramento (44.4 percent) were in the top five, along with Baltimore (45.6 percent).

Pittsburgh, a city that has struggled with a “brain drain” over the years and which is trying to attract Amazon’s second headquarters, came in at 39.3 percent.

(Glassdoor Graphic)

So if you’re about to flee Providence or you’re trying to get to San Francisco, what’s the most attractive thing about where you’re applying?

Company culture is a top factor, according to the study — even more so than salary. A company with a 1-star higher overall Glassdoor rating is six times more likely to attract a candidate than a company that’s offering $10,000 more in salary, but has a lower culture rating.

But what do all of these metro movers want to do? A lot of them want to be engineers or developers. And, some will move for a new flight attendant gig.

(Glassdoor Graphic)

If all of this makes you just want to head to the bar for a drink, there’s good news there, too. If you like the person who serves you, it appears from the data that they’re not trying to go anywhere.

(Glassdoor Graphic)

Writer and editor Kurt Schlosser covers the Geek Life beat for GeekWire. A longtime journalist, photographer and designer, he has worked previously for NBC News, msnbc.com and the Seattle P-I. Follow Kurt on Twitter or reach him at kurt@geekwire.com.

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